WWE 2K25’s most potentially game-changing new feature is its smallest one

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that can have the biggest impact.

Innuendo aside – this isn’t the Attitude Era, after all – there are times where the new entry in an annual video game series can make a big fanfare about major new modes and features, when in reality it’s a slight tweak to the actual gameplay that can make all the difference to returning players.

This isn’t always a good thing, as EA just discovered when its gameplay tweaks to EA FC 25 led to hefty player backlash, followed by an abruptly released ‘Gameplay Refresh Update’ that attempted to bandage the wound.

Thankfully, the little tweak we’re referring to in WWE 2K25 is actually a good thing, something that has the potential to both ease player frustration and inspire more tactical play. For the sake of tradition, however, let’s focus on the marquee announcements first.

Earlier this week I visited 2K’s London offices to spend a few hours with WWE 2K25, and while the game’s biggest unknown – The Island, its new online world exclusive to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S – wasn’t available in the build I played, the content I did get to see was very promising.

Exclusive WWE 2K25 Gameplay:

The most obvious of these new additions is intergender matches, something the WWE 2K community has been asking for for a long time. Some trepidation on the WWE’s part has meant that male and female superstars have traditionally been kept separate, meaning should you choose a male wrestler in the character select screen, all the female wrestlers are immediately greyed out, and vice versa.

Such was the desire for intergender matches that some cunning modders would take female wrestlers from the game’s roster, change their gender to male and re-upload them in the Community Creations suite so that other players could download them and make them fight against men.

These workarounds are no longer necessary because 2K has finally turned off the restrictions, which means if you’d like to see Rhea Ripley versus John Cena or the Usos taking on Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill, this is now finally possible.

I’d be curious to know why the WWE has suddenly backed down on this, given how wary it can be of anything that taints its PG image these days, but in recent years we’ve had (very) rare situations where women have fought men, such as Nia Jax’s entry in the 2019 men’s Royal Rumble, so perhaps it’s decided to just pull off the band-aid and get on with it.

Speaking of Nia Jax, she and the rest of her family form part of this year’s Showcase mode. Every year Showcase focuses on a specific wrestler or era and allows players to recreate key matches from history, and this year’s edition is based on the Bloodline.

Current WWE fans will know that the Bloodline storyline has been one of the best in recent history, but long-time devotees will also know it spans as far back as the 1960s with High Chief Peter Maivia, grandfather of The Rock and blood brother of the Anoa’i family.

The Bloodline Showcase is an attempt to cover not just the more recent events involving Roman Reigns, the Usos and Solo Sikoa, but also the family’s history, meaning the likes of the Wild Samoans, Yokozuna and others no longer part of the current roster will pop up over the course of the timeline.

One of the major changes to the Showcase this year is the removal of the ‘slingshot’ feature, which was introduced in recent years and saw the game seamlessly transitioning between gameplay and actual footage taken from the real broadcasts each match is based on.

It was a neat effect but last year’s Showcase (based on the history of WrestleMania) perhaps took it a bit too far, leading to moments where you were left sitting there watching real wrestling for minutes at a time. Now the FMV clips have been ditched and everything is rendered in-engine, which also gives 2K the freedom to mess about with things a little bit.

This time the Showcase matches are split into three different categories, allowing you to either recreate classic matches exactly how they played out, doing a “what if” and changing the outcome of those matches, and taking part in all-out fantasy bouts that never happened but would be fun to see.

Conveniently, the three matches I played covered each of these categories. First, playing as Nia Jax, I had to defeat VGC’s own Lyra Valkyria in the final of the 2024 Queen of the Ring tournament, just as she did in real life. Next, I controlled Roman Reigns as he fought Seth Rollins at the 2022 Royal Rumble, but whereas in that match Rollins originally won by DQ this time the aim is to win cleanly as Reigns.

Finally, as an example of the fantasy matches available in the Showcase, I got to play as the Wild Samoans (accompanied to the ring by the legendary Captain Lou Albano) in a match against the Dudley Boyz, a team that boasts a similarly extreme ethos but formed just as the Samoans’ careers were ending, meaning their paths never crossed.

“This time the Showcase matches are split into three different categories, allowing you to either recreate classic matches exactly how they played out, doing a “what if” and changing the outcome of those matches, and taking part in all-out fantasy bouts that never happened but would be fun to see.”

The three Showcase matches I played – and therefore the entire mode, hopefully – were introduced by Paul Heyman, who is in full-on scenery-chewing mode. While it’s impossible to tell at this stage how the whole mode will play out, Heyman’s delivery in these three promos alone shows he’s clearly not phoning it in and really helps to build up the atmosphere before each match.

While intergender matches and the new Showcase mode are the two biggest features in the build I played, I also tried out a few other new additions designed to keep things feeling fresh.

A few new backstage brawl settings have been added, including the NXT parking lot. This is a large area with plenty of weapons and obstacles – when you’ve got four wrestlers fighting on top of an ambulance, trying not to fall off, it’s delightfully ridiculous. Incidentally, backstage fights are set to allow for more than two human-controlled players this time.

Other new additions include Underground matches (where the ring has no ropes), Bloodline Rules matches (which we didn’t get to play but apparently has you choosing three other wrestlers to call on for run-ins), and a new third-person camera which lets you rotate your view mid-fight with the right stick.

None of these are particularly major game-changing additions, but they’re welcome nonetheless. This brings me to the small but significant change I mentioned earlier, however. For the longest time it’s never been possible to tell when your wrestler is going to get up any time you’re lying down. This has finally changed.

Now, any time you hit the deck, a little gauge appears next to your name and starts to empty. Once it does, that’s when your superstar starts to get up. As ever, you can speed up your recovery slightly by hitting buttons, but to actually have a visual indicator of when you’re about to get up is genuinely such a big deal.

For starters, it removes the guesswork. There have been times in the past when I’ve been lying down and an opponent is about to do something, be that pin a tag partner, climb a ladder or leave a cage, and I’ve used up an Instant Recovery to quickly get up because I didn’t know how long I’ll be down there.

Now I can tell at a glance if I should save my Instant Recovery, because I’m only a couple of seconds away from getting up anyway. Similarly, if I’m the one climbing the ladder or the cage, I can now tell when an opponent is getting up and cancel my ascent if I need to.

Some of the biggest changes to be added to the game – such as the aforementioned Island mode and a new World Tour feature coming to the compelling but microtransaction-heavy MyFaction mode weren’t available in the build I played – and so at this stage it’s not clear how they’re going to affect the overall package.

So far, however, everything I’ve seen has reassured me that 2K and Visual Concepts aren’t taking any major risks here. While that may be somewhat underwhelming to players who’ve been buying every annual release and have been hoping for something revolutionary in the ring, the addition of intergender matches and that little gauge – that beautiful little gauge – can be considered revolutions in their own right.